Full disclosure, I was sent the book, “Celebritize Yourself” by Friedman, and asked to post a review. I have done a number of these in the past and I don’t get any compensation other then a free copy of the book. I have been putting off reviewing this book because I was pretty disappointing or maybe I have just so much knowledge in this field, that it’s old. Either way, it was not an exciting read for someone who wants to become a e-celebrity (online celebrity?) online. Similar to @garyvee, although I love him, his book, “Why now is the time to Crush it! Cash in on your passion”, which is similar in context, was also a bit of a disappointment for myself as well. Sorry Gary, I still love you man! I think it’s just that I am a huge Garyvee fan and have heard all of this over and over again and know that it IS time to cash in! So although I wasn’t to excited about the book, there are still some great takeaways. I wanted to provide and post up some of the cream of the crop content from Celebritize Yourself, let’s dive into some exercises that were covered in the book that I HIGHLY recommend.

1. 5 Reasons why I want to be a celebrity in your field. If you remember my book publishing 2.0 post you will realize that you NEED to put yourself out there. Are you ready? Can you handle it? Do you realize you are ALREADY out there? Okay, this last one hit me hard recently as no matter what you do, you are already OUT there. A simple Google search will bring up information or not, and both outcomes say something. So be true, honest, and yourself.

2. Do you want to write a book? It seems books are the new business cards of self proclaimed e-lebrities. Do you have a fan base of 100,000? Are you willing to spend time to learn technology and interact with people to build a following of 100,000 fans?

3. Outsourcing your book (at least the first draft?) – I find it amazing that most of the book discusses how you can leverage having a book and how you can write one quickly with the help of editors, ghostwriters, and co-authors. I am all for outsourcing, but if you are going to use your book as your business card, really put yourself into it.

4. Bold Aggressive Action – It didn’t say that exactly, but it did cover taking action and just waiting for it, won’t help. I have found that even a little action is more then enough, you don’t need to build a top 1000 website the first go around, just something to start with and keep going. Most people fail because they give up to early. I know for myself I have started to lose interests in a number of passions, but I think that is because I have been changing how I want to make an impact and how my current values of changed.

5. The Best way to Be is Entertaining, Informative, and Motivated. I have attended a number of motivating seminars and panels and I must say that some people (like @garyvee) are so uplifting that you can’t but help get you started on your next idea.

This book is not for everyone and I would tend to think that it’s for someone who has no understanding of the internet and looking to make a name for themselves in a small niche without technology. So if you are one of those people take a look or order a copy. I for one don’t recommend or encourage my readers to check it out. If you are serious, checkout the Problogger Book, I highly recommend it.

I seem to be getting contacted by more and more writers/publishers about book reviews. I was recently contacted by Dave Crenshaw who happens to admirer my blog and asked for a book review on his new book, The Myth of Multitasking How “doing it all” gets nothing done. I must say that although I was expecting a bit more meat with the book, the amount of knowledge and parable like story telling made it a pleasure to read and a great recommendation. I am also really excited to be doing this book review as part of a blog tour that seems to be all over the interwebs.

Almost everyday I tend to have 10 to 20+ tabs open in Firefox while, checking stats, emailing, chatting on aim, twittering, and thinking dam it feels good to be a multitasker, well atleast until I realized I am wasting time and just switchtasking and getting nothing done. A switchtasker is someone who is constantly switching between tasks, try to accomplish small things and get stuff done, yet over the course of time, nothing gets done. Thinking about multitasking and all the books I have read about the process such as Working the System, how running around with your head cut off trying to accomplish everything gets nothing done. While thinking about multitasking I am starting to realize that in order for myself to focus on one thing I need to purposely fail at all but one. I want to fail early, often, and to the point of where I am only focusing on 1 task at a time. Think about it, you SHOULD only have to focus at one tasks at a time, the human mind can only handle so much, you are not Neo from the Matrix and NO you do not know kung-fu. (or do you?)

Okay, so to start things off right with this review, Dave you did a great job writing this book and I must say it’s a keeper in my bookshelf and should be one in any management or CEO’s bookshelf. This book is for anyone who is the type of person who is constantly running out of hours in the day. Just thinking about the concept of multitasking it sounds perfect, but yet it’s not. The book walks you through a story about Phil the business coach and Helen the CEO. The book uses a story of Phil interacting with Helen explaining multitasking and how to over come it in a parable like explanation filled with great knowledge and background to help overcome the lie of multitasking. I also enjoyed the section about how humans can not multitask, and to prove to you I will use the example from the book.

This exercise should help my readers understand that people CANNOT (let me repeat that) CANNOT Multitask! Here is a simple exercise right from the book that illustrates the point.

Grab a pen and paper.

Draw a table like the following:

Okay, now write the phrase “Multitasking is worse than a lie” but after each letter you write, start to write the numbers 1 to 27 on the line below, switching between the letters and numbers each time. Now you have 60 seconds, go!

So to help get you started here is the first 3 letters/numbers you need to write in this order:

TIME!

Okay, You should end up with something like this

Now try the same thing, but this time write the phrase first and the numbers section, 60 seconds Go!

TIME!

Okay, Now I am betting the second time was a lot faster, why well the first time you were multitasking or rather (switchtasking) jumping from one to the other, whereas with the second time you were doing things in serial method and focusing at one task at a time. The book illustrates this point of multitasking very well and covers how a very busy person (phone calls, email, 5 min meetings, blogging, etc.) you are working on getting things done, but during that time between switching tasks, you are losing small chunks of time. All of these tasks and switching between them, makes me think of my computer science course and how computer systems have evolved to have multiple processors and handle these type of calculations, yet us humans are still stuck with one brain.

Thinking about all the task people try to accomplish in a day, well consider that their are only 168 hours in a week. You cannot add or subtract time, so make every second, minute and hour count towards what you want to accomplish and take action.

So while reading this book, I thought for a second wait, was a page copied directly from the Four Hour Work Week. I guess I just can’t let go of the Four Hour Work Week (or my bible as some of my friends call it. I think I will be reading it again this weekend trying to better my best and automate more of my life.)

Anyway, on page 60 of the book the myth of multitasking, we see James sets his voicemail to state the following:

“Hello, this is James. You’ve reached my voicemail, which means I’m probably meeting with a customer right now. I do check my message frequently usually at 10:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 4:00 PM. If you leave a message, I will be sure to get back to you before the day is over. Thank you!”

Okay so on page 93 of the Four Hour Work Week it goes into detail about how you should check your email twice per day and limit your phone calls to 1 office phone line (non urgent) and 1 cell phone line (urgent). I asked Dave about this before this review, but he has not read the Four Hour Work Week. Maybe after reading my review and some other great posts I have done, he will pickup a copy.

The Myth of Multitasking is a great book and I would recommend picking it up the next time you have an hour or two to kill at an airport or an event. The book is a quick read and I really enjoy the storyteller approach and plan to write out my own worksheet of my own life on how I spend my time. Multitasking is a myth, even the news is covering that, Multitasking is a lie.

I was recently contacted by Sam Carpenter’s publicist on posting a blog review about Sam Carpenter’s new book, Working the System: The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More. I was sent a FREE copy of his book and have read it. After reading it I was a bit shocked they contacted me to post a review, (I will explain below), but after contacting the publicist and rereading it again, I figured it was time to post my review of the book and opinion.

To get things started, as many of you know I am a Tim Ferris fan and have written a review of the 4 Hour Work Week for my book club. I am a big fan of automation and increasing your passive income, which is what is becoming more popular in today’s “daily grind” and is the main focus or “target market” for this book.

So to explain why I was shocked that I was contacted, let’s open the book to the second page of the preface under Long-term chaos.

“Readers who have experienced tough times will ‘get’ this book. Those in their early years, who have so far cruised along unscathed, may not. The tough times to which I refer include prolonged physical and/or mental crisis where one stands alone against the blackness: A nightmarish childhood, war, disabling injury or sickness, crime/incarceration, addiction, divorce with attending child custody battle, personal or public betrayal, financial calamity, mental breakdown, or endless work that drains and demoralizes.
Twenty year olds might not get it. Forty year olds probably will.”

Although I have experienced tough times in my own life, being a twenty-something I was a bit thrown back when this book outlines that ‘twenty year olds might not get it’.

I have always felt that my age has played a key role in what actions I can or can not take, such as when an individual (like myself) can have a bank account (must be 18 years old or have a guardian over 18 years old), rent a car (cost more if under 25, some require 25 years old), drinking in the US (21 years old, umm it was 18 when my Dad went to college), and even place hotel or limo reservations (Yea been turn downed when I was 19 for a hotel, yet was able to book a limo reservation at age 9 after calling various limo companies, go figure).
Anyway, I guess I have a gripe with books/people/etc who set “age” limits or requirements for people. I find that a bit insulting and feel that age is just a number in society. I would rather see this book focus on the point that most companies are run by older people (possibly 20somethings but more likely older) and the Work the System book should be read by these “older” people.

Although I am not a 20something millionaire and only started my company at 22 (4 years after I was legally allowed), their are people to who have, such as
Cameron Johnson who wrote the book You Call The Shots, another Book in my Book club. Cameron has started many businesses before 18, so for Sam to mention age and view points in his book, well I just want to raise my hand and say, why? I am 20 something and I “got” it, thanks!Okay, sorry about that rant or rave.

Continuing on with my book review of Sam’s Working the System, Sam touches on this idea of automation and building systems. So rather then one person putting out fires all day and everyday, you create systems or documentation to explain how to accomplish a specific task. This is a HUGE and important point in business. This works great in business because no matter how amazing your business is, you will most likely have turn over of employees. With a system and “process”, this allows your employees to become empowered and take charge and tackle a problem as well as let you sit back and “live your life”. Creating systems and documentation to “automate” the learning or taking action of a process will allow you to step away from the “system” and let it work itself out.

Sam focuses much of his book on his own personal life and how he has taken Centratel, a telephone service representative company Sam bought back in 1984 at the age of 35, from a barley surviving company to a very profitable company. He has since then turned Centratel from a 100+ hour work week job where the business owns you to a (dare I say) 4 hour work week where you own the business.

While reading this book, I was taken back by the idea of documentation to create automation. To better explain this I will try and paraphrase the chapter Turn Key Revolution in The E Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber.

Do you think you can create a better hamburger then McDonald’s? This summer I am sure you had a couple of BBQ’s where you cooked a burger or two. Well most people will answer YES, I can make a better burger then McDonald’s, although with the idea of fast-food, the concept of “better” can vary in scoop. The average McDonald’s restaurant produces more then $2 million in annual sales. So a “better” burger may be one that you can produce over and over and over again where no matter what McDonald’s you travel too, they all taste the same. So no matter how many burgers you make or where, do they all taste the same, I am guess your vary from each BBQ. This takes a concept of creating a hamburger and reproducing that hamburger millions of times. Their is a system and documentation in place to show an employee just how to make that hamburger. This is the same concept and idea Sam is discussing in his book.

Another take away I received from Sam’s book is for you to look at your business as a “franchise or system”, in order to automate you first must document. Take for example, sales, you may want your employees to act a specific way and/or be knowledge about various topics. As a business man, in order to train someone takes time and to pass on the knowledge from person to person, you may miss some steps, but offering a book with this knowledge and asking them to read it, is the same concept that the American public school system is founded on. Read, Learn, Explain.

I did not see a lot of value the book had to offer the first time reading it, but the second time brought a bit more hope and foresight into improving a business. Although some of the points I have seen in other books, I was blown away by Sam’s experience on how he figured out the system and brought back Centratel to a very profitable company. This ‘enlightenment’ in Chapter 5, where he hand an out of the body experience and where Sam stepped outside his life and looked down at his life and company. It was a bit weird, but if you can dream it you can make it happen!

I did not find this book as life changing as the 4 Hour Work Week, but after the second read, there are parts of the book that describe the idea of documenting a task and creating a “process” that can help entrepreneurs and business geeks. So to end this review of his book, I will state how Sam points out this book: If you are a parent or a 40+ year old who owns their own business and battling to keep it alive working 100+ hours, pickup a copy Work the System by Sam Carpenter and read it, it might expand your context.

I recently read this book and wanted to put it on the Geek Guru Book Club list. It’s the basic life story of Richard Branson, the billionair entreperner who built the Virgin empire. This book covers 14 great lessons Richard Branson explains through his life stories. This book is very inspiring and should get you thinking about how it doesn’t take a look to get started.

Almost every entreprener I have met has interestes that are all over the board. Richard Branson is no different and has started and built his Virgin empire in various different markets and verticles. He began his empire with Student, a managzine that covers various political news and celebrity insight. It still is amazing that even in 1966, a student only stixteen years old was running a magazine.

As almost anything that Mr. Branson does in his life, he tries to have fun while doing it. They are some great stories of Richard flying around the world on hot air balloons, as well as some frieghtnen tails of crashes. Richard is very bold and has been in markets such as the airline business, mobile phone business, and record business. Most companies stay close to their roots, but for Richard, Virgin is a brand that has fun and works hard.

Virgin Galactic is the next big initiative that Richard is building. For $200,000 USD you will soon be able to fly to outer-space. Since 2005 Virgin Galactic has been booking tickets, just $20,000 down will get your name on the waiting list. So if you have some cash to burn, sign up and plan for outer-space.

For anyone who is thinking about or has heard the words passive income, this is a MUST READ. Basically this book is written with 6 main lessons in mind and hopefully helps you learn how to think RICH.

Lessons:

• The Rich Don’t Work for Money
• Why Teach Financial literacy?
• Mind Your Own Business
• The History of Taxes and the Power of Corporations
• The Rich Invent Money
• Work to Learn – Don’t Work for Money

The basis of the book is Robert T. Kyioskai has 2 dads, 1 is his real dad who is a PhD Teacher who views getting a good education, a good job and you will have this “wishful thinking” worry free retirement. The other dad is his friends Mike’s Dad, who is a rich (building business, making money, etc) dad.

Robert discusses various stories while growing up and how he saw both sides of the picture as well as learnt how to make passive income. It took Robert a while until he was “out of the rat race”, making more money in passive income then expenses.

For any of those interested in this book and or read this book I HIGHLY recommend looking for a Cashflow club in your area and start playing the board game that was the prequel to the book. Robert created this game, Cashflow where you get an occupation, debt, etc (basically a life) and try to get out of the rat race by building up your passive income. After playing this game a couple of times you will start to see these “small/big opportunities” within your own life. During the end of October to November I have become a Cashflow addict. I was hitting up all the games around the PHX area and not only enjoyed playing but also tried to get out as fast as possible. This past Christmas I got the game Cashflow from my mom (thanks mom!) and have been bringing it with me to play with friends and family. Playing this game will help start to expand your context and your ability to understand money and how you make it. It’s a great way to teach financial intelligence as well as open your mind to see various “opportunities” that present themselves in your own life.

I will also be blogging more Financial Intelligence and my taping experience this past Friday with Robert later this week.

Do you think you have ADD/ADHA or are just too busy to live your life. Then you need to read this book NOW! I had the chance to met Dr. Edward M. Hallowell a few weeks back and enjoyed listing to him talk. He is a very passionate speaker and can get through to many people. I seriously I think I have some ADD in me and focusing on a 1 hour presentation can be hard, but his speach just hit me and all I can say is WOW.

His book Crazy Busy probably describes about 90% of America today, we are all too busy to do anything and addicted to email and our crackberry. We need to slow down and take a look at either how we handle our time as well as keep us organized. One tip that he describes (that I have never heard of) is OHIO, Only Handle it once. Basically do you work on something 5 times before it’s finished because you keep getting distracted or just don’t want to do it. Then this should hit home, when your working on something, and then drop it to work on something else, only to come back to it and try and finish this simple 5 minute task, but you just spend 2 hours wasting time because you don’t want to do it.

Another great tip that he talks about is your morning burst. I know for me once I get up, shower I am ready to hit the ground running. I tend to be extremely focused in the morning and work straight to lunch, but once I get up and “continue” my day I feel that I am not as productive. I also know that in the morning if I don’t utilized my morning burst, I feel even less productive. Speaking of productivity, seriously how many times do you hit, inbox or “Send/Receive”. Yes I am guilty of this act, but we need to step back and understand that even 10 years ago, no one was checking email every minute. We would check it maybe every hour or two.

This book is a great way to connect to yourself as well as learn of various ways to help manage your time and energy. You need to leverage your energy each day to help keep you going. One thing that is starting to him me is that I have a birthday coming up in a week and am starting to think long term. One of the chapters focuses on how much time you have left until your 75 years old. He looks at how you can get the biggest return on invesment. I know for myself on my birthday (next week), I will have about 26,805,600 minutes until I turn 75. (so figure out the math if you want, or facestalk me)

It was great to hear Dr. Hallowell speak and I am signed up to hear him again in May 2008. His book is really great and all I can say is to quote USA Today, “Too Busy to read this book? Then you really need to.”

I have previously posted how I meet some amazing people at the Superconference 2007. (where I also met tim). One of the most amazing and upcoming entrepreneurs that I had followed was Cameron Johnson. Cameron has an amazing success story as well as even more potential for growth. Looking back at his accomplishments throughout this book it is just amazing. Starting with a computer, a printer, and Print Shop Deluxe he formed Cheers & Tears printing Co, which was the stepping stone for more to come. Cameron built over 12 successful business all before he was 21! He made his first million before graduating high school, and has done it by starting businesses that require little to no money and have high profits.

Unlike most of the web today, Cameron explains in his book that it doesn’t take a million dollars to start a business. You SHOULD start small around $50 or what you can afford. This book is filled with some amazing stories and makes you think, hey I can do that.

I got to hear Cameron speak a couple of weeks ago and not only enjoyed it, but he has inspired me to focus on the small businesses in a niche market that I can build now. I always have idea about a car company as well as a large business, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, so start small and go up.

I really enjoyed reading this book and have 2 stories that just blew me away. Cameron is only a year younger then me and well, there is a lot of history that I remember that they discuss in the book. (like beanie babies and Home Alone 2). So the first story is what Cameron did, he wrote a letter to Donald Trump when he was 8 years old basically talking about how he was going to be going to NYC and staying at the Plaza Hotel (which Trump owned at the time). Most people don’t know this but Trump made a cameo movie appearance in Home Alone 2. I remember this because when I went to see it, I was up in Vermont at the time and other then myself and my dad, no one got the joke.

Anyway, Cameron wrote the letter and Trump upgraded their stay (for FREE) to the exact room where Kevin stayed in the movie. He also set them up with a tour of FAO Schwartz and gave Cameron a Talkboy. (the recording device used in the movie, yea I had one of those) Most people would think twice of mailing a letter to someone important (Trump), but Cameron didn’t and it worked. I remember doing this activity in the 7th and 8th grade. I mailed a letter to John DeLorean and another to a VP at Sony. I received a letter from Sony, but unfortunately not from Mr. DeLorean. Thinking positive will get you far in life, and I too will be looking up to Cameron trying to be successful.

The second amazing story that I found is he has built so much on the web, yet knows little to no HTML. Here is someone who understands hiring good people and managing the work rather then doing it himself. To me this is very important because I do know a lot about the web, but there is even more out there I don’t know. I know that my time is important, but I also need to start to think bigger and hire a developer to work with me rather then do it myself. This might sound strange to people, but I have a technology background, but I want to build a business, not code for the rest of my life. Cameron launched a email forwarding service called MyEZMail. With a $2,500 investment and hiring a developer to build it, once it was launched, the only cost was only a $15 hosting charge, so the profit margin was huge.

This is what I am trying to do in life, build something (a service) that offers a variety of features and would be useful for the next couple of years, but does not require the “upkeep” or need to “fix it”. For me this is a great concept for a source of passive income. Build something or invest into 1 thing, and then each day/month/year get paid doing nothing, is just awesome. Expect to see a lot of this type of thinking and discussions on my blog in the next couple of months.

So if your an entrepreneur or a young kid who wants to start something, take a look at this book, it really can help. I know the Appendix has a lot of great information, check it out. You can also take a look at cameron’s website.

Are you a Project Manager, a VP, maybe even someone who was a coder? Maybe you started as a developer and now have 5 or more people your “in charge of”?

Well you NEED to pickup this book, NOW! I will be the first to tell you first hand this book works. How do I know this works because I saw it working before I read the book! While reading this book I saw many of the concepts being used (at that time) by my boss the GREAT Ron Chambers at Ziff Davis Media. (who is currently taking a mini-retirement)

While working with Ron at Ziff Davis Media, I learned a lot as a project manger and saw how Ron would do many of the concepts in this book. From Project Planning, Giving Feedback, one on one meetings, and running effective meetings. While reading this book I was amazed at how much of this was being implemented at this position. I agree with this book and find it not only an enjoyable read, but something to reference later in life. Leadership is NOT a skilled your born with, it’s something learned over time. I see many people who need to step up to the plate and DO, by becoming leaders. I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone who is thinking about upper management or is current in a position of upper management.

Being a Manager or even a VP can be tough and hard on anyone. The emotions, drama, and every workplace has it, so if you are a “higher up” take a look at this book and understand that work is not just a 9 to 5 job, but learning to understand people while helping them get their work done faster and more enjoyable. No one likes to be an outsider in the workplace and by learning how to deal with conflicts as well as discuss potential problems you can be more efficiency in the workplace as well as enjoy working! (imagine that!)

Well I do NOT try to make this a political blog, but after reading this book I just had to post it on my blog. I do NOT think its a Geek Book, but a Great read.

If your any type of a car guy you have head of this author, Lee Iacocca. He has written a great book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone? which is a very powerful and expresses book. Mr. Iacocca focuses a lot of this book on what a leader is and how we LACK leaders in our government. He asks tough questions that NEED TO GET ANSWERED by a Real leader rather then, I do not recall. The book looks at what a leader is and how leaders should pass his Nine C’s Test. The Nine C’s are:

• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Communication
• Character
• Courage
• Conviction
• Charisma
• Competence
• Common Sense

Just remember these Nine C’s the next time your voting at an election and HOPEFULLY we will TAKE ACTION and NOT stay the course.

This books made me start to think about Journalism, weather its amateur, professional, whatever, we need Bloggers/CNN/MSNBC/Fox/etc to start ASKING QUESTIONS and NOT skipping the MAIN ISSUES due to FEAR! Get the real questions that were submited to YouTube and NOT the canned questions, like same sex marrage! This book address a lot of touchy topics and covers them very well. Throughout the book Mr. Iacocca also gives a short autobiography, such as meeting with Fidel Castro in cuba and working at GM and Chrysler.

This book was very entertaining and a quick read. Mr. Iacocca expresses many of his political views and hopefully makes YOU jump up and say, WTF is going on in WASHINGTON, LETS DO SOMETHING!

Mr. Iacocca also gives some suggestions on solving some of the problems within the United States as well as the world. Dare I say Iacocca 2008? Prolly not, but I would like to see a REAL LEADER in the White House come 2008!

STOP READING THIS REVIEW GO BUY THE BOOK, SERIOUSLY! Okay, maybe I am a bit over inspired by this book, but WOW. After starting my Geek Guru Book Club, I have been reading about a book a week, some good, some bad, and some you have to blog about. The 4 hour work week is a book that I am not only blogging about, but have already reached out and got people who “may not read books” to order it and start reading. This books is very interesting and makes you rethink your life as well as all the possibilities.

Tim Ferriss is a very interesting person who graduated from Princeton, Gold medal at the Chinese kickboxing national chamption, and enjoys life. After picking up this book to read, I could hardly stop reading. He starts out with some interesting stories as well as introduces some of his lingo like New Rich. The New Rich are the new blood of money or (our?) generation, the x generation. Most 20somethings or even early 30somethings understand that working in a 7 by 7 cube from 9 to 5 (or later) is just dumb. There is always work and the idea of a worry free retirement is foolish. Do you really want to work hard for 40 years and then take retirement until you die, (if you don’t die sooner) or do you want to reward yourself along the way and enjoy the small riches in life. Yea, I am with answer b) enjoy myself along the way and live life to its fullest!

The 4 hour work week discusses how you do NOT need a Swiss bank account to take a 4 month vacation around the world. You can even do it cheaper then the cost of living right now! (YES RIGH NOW!) Buying a sail boat and sailing to Europe could be cheaper then continuing your life and living in your apartment.

One of the most interesting inspiring stories (p. 231) was about a Mexican fisherman. Here is a quick summary of the story. The Mexican fisherman, who is a great fisherman, he is able to get enough fish for his family and friends in just a couple of hours of work. A MBA (oh how I HATE MBAs!) sees this fisherman and how he can maximize profits and get a couple more boats into the water and bring in a large income by maximizing his fishing. The fisherman says to the MBA, and then what? The MBA says you could then sell the company as an IPO and make millions and buy anything you want, and the fisherman says an and then what? The MBA says you could retire and just fish for a couple of hours and enjoy life, the fisherman says I am already doing that.

Think about this, you could be enjoying the “retirement” life and be living your dream rather then trying to live a “foolish rich life”. This was a total eye opener for myself and makes me start to think about all the things I want to do in life and how I CAN be doing them. Money is always something you will be making and/or need to make, why not start living your dreams and taking risks.

One of the other tales I have learned is about risk. How you need to give up the fact that you might go broke or you could be in debt, but think about your dreams. If you never try you can never live them. Think about what is the worst thing that could happen and live your fear rather then fear it. I know I have started to do that and rethink how I should start to take risks and how I can make my life better.

One of the most inspiration quotes I read in this book was Steve Jobs during Stanford University Commencement 2005. The summary version (“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?”) Understand that you need to do what you ENJOY and NOT something to MAKE MONEY! Money can always be made, it is just will you take a risk and live your dreams, or work and hate your life. So liberate your life and pickup this book. Please stop by again and check out the Geek Guru Book Club